in a flood of tears; fhowered down a thousand curfes on my rival; and vowed vengeance on my seducer. She fuffered me to exhauft my ftock of lamentations, and, when I became calm, endeavoured to convince me of the folly of indulging grief, when I ought fooner to think of intereft. "You are young," cried fhe, "with fuch a stock of beauty, there is no danger of wanting lovers, but titled ones are not every day to be met with. Endeavour to get a fettlement from him before his affection cools, and never trouble yourfelf who is the object of his preference." "Aye! but my dear Mrs. Spencer; after believing that I fhould certainly be lady Moreton, how fhall I bear to fhew myself in the world after my difappointment? What will become of my parents, when they hear that the perfidious man has deserted me for another? "Pho! Pho! banish all thefe childish thoughts, and think only of a fettlement. In the next fond fit in which you find him, vow immediately to leave him, unless he makes you independent of the world." "Nay, for that matter, I have no reafon now to complain on the fubject of his generolity, for in cafe of failure of his promife, I have a bond against him for twenty thousand pounds." "Say you fo! indeed? Then, Mifs Tafty, you have no real motive for your grief. Such a confideration would confole me for the lofs of a thoufand lovers; befides, fhould his lordship marry, it may be merely a match of convenience, you may ftill enjoy his heart, though his lady enjoys his title." "Aye, Spencer, but the title is my grief; to lofe all hopes of that is worse than the lofs of his affection: befides, the charms of the lady leave not a doubt, but she will poffefs both one and the other." Thus ran we on till the coach ftopped, and the moment we were fet down, I flew to my drawers for the bond. She took it from my hand, and after running it over, fhrugged up her shoulders, and returning it, ex- "Heavens, Spencer! what do you mean? Is it not an obligation by which he binds himself to marry me in a month from the date thereof, or fhould I claim it, forfeit the fum therein mentioned." "The words certainly fignify as much; but where Mifs Tafty was your fenfes when you forgot to have it dated?" and aftonifhment, when I beheld in Think, Betfy, what was my rage ed! I tore my hair for very madness, in reality the deficiency fhe mentionand, but for her perfuafions, thould have upbraided him with his perfidy the moment he returned. She endeaindulging my refentment, when a convoured to convince me of the folly of trary behaviour would be far moft politic: and, foothing me with the hopes, that though we had feen him with a lady, he might not be going to marry her, I went to bed rather better reconciled to my misfortune than when I at first discovered it. Reft, however, was a stranger to my eyes. Determined to be fatisfied, whether I rofe the next morning, and fending my conjectures were not true, for a chairman, ordered him to walk to lord Moreton's, and make enmaster was not going quiries among the fervants, if their to be married. The intelligence he brought me back ferved only to render me more outrageous. He had indeed fpoke truth, when he told me the house was ornamenting and repairing; for from what the butler faid, his marriage was expected to take place the week fol lowing, and the fervants and workmen were in the greatest confufion from the hurry in which they had been ordered to prepare for their reception. Mrs. Spencer, as foon as the man was "What think you now?" faid I to gone. "Is he not the most vile of men; men; and I the most injured of women?" "Perjuries of this kind, my dear, are fo very frequent, that they are not worth regarding. Think nothing about him, unless to feather your neft before he leaves you in the lurch. If you are wife, you will conceal what you have heard. Affume more fondnefs than before, and though Hymen deprives you of a title, fuffer it not to deprive you of provifion and your lover." Though my heart revolted againft fuch double-dealings, intereft in fome measure compelled me to follow her advice. When he came home, I took no notice of what had paffed; but his lordship was not fo filent on the fub ject. After many apologies for leaving me fo long, he hinted that his affairs were in a very disagreeable fituation, and taking me by the hand with an air of fondness, "Nothing, Kitty, I believe, but matrimony will be able to fet them to rights, but fo long as my dearest girl poffeffes my heart, I am fure he will not afflict herself, fhould another poffefs my hand." Judge, my dear, how great was my indignation! I could hardly reftrain it within proper bounds. Amidt a thou fand fobs, I loaded him with reproaches; but inftead of being affected at my grief, he walked calmly out of the room, and defired I would fend my maid to acquaint him, when I was in a proper humour to liften to reasonable arguments. When my paffion was a little over, I began to fee my folly, and throwing as much compofure into my features as I could poffibly affume, went down to the dining-room; where 1 found him looking over a play bill, quite as unconcerned as if nothing had happened. With well-affected fondnefs he affured me, "I was yet as dear to him as ever; that inftead of refenting his conduct I ought to approve it, for that by marrying a lady with fo large a fortune as Mifs Nugent, he fhould be able to fupport me in greater elegance, 5 which his contracted finances would not otherwise permit him." "It will also, I hope, my Lord, enable you to difcharge this obligation," drawing from my pocket the bond which he had given me." "Phaw! Phaw! Kitty! you have more fenfe than to place any dependance on fuch a trifle. It is of no value, but ferved only as a momentary foother. In love and war, my girl, all tratagems are allowable. Though I give you not twenty thousand pounds, you will continue to poffefs my affec tions as long as you deferve them; and, while miftrefs of them, will be in want of nothing which gold can purchase; what more can you defire? If you continue to pout, I am gonepeace or feparation is the word. I have no notion of difcord. fhould happen to be one of the confequences of matrimony, I muft fubmit to it; but our's are chains of love, not of Hymen." If it It was in vain to argue or to fret, I beheld his determinations were unalterable, and without a friend who would countenance me after the folly I had been guilty of, what was to be done, but continue under his protestion whatever terms he pleased to offer? In short, I yielded to his propofal of remaining in my present fitua tion till after his marriage, and when once he has made fure of the lady and her fortune, am to figure away at her expence. I cannot fay I fhall be quite eafy at the thoughts of living with him when he is married; but what can I do? Befides, Betfey, fome difagreeable fymptoms, 1 have experienced lately, give me reason to fear other confequences will enfue from our connexion, than what I before apprehended; and under fuch cir cumftances, what recourfe but fub. miffion to my fate? My friends know nothing of this affair, fo pray, my dear, be fecret. Fanny wrote to me foon after my elopement, and, in the name of my parents, intreated me to return; but my affurances of foon becoming lady Moreton high flown notions. If I might advife, the best thing you can do, now your keeper is going to marry, is to Moreton, quieted their fcruples; and as it can do no good to make them uneafy, I would not, for the world, they fhould hear of my difappoint-throw afide your fine cloaths, and come down to your father's. I fuppofe he would not refufe to take you in; and if you can fo determine, I will endeavour to intercede for you; for if you ftay where you are, depend upon it, worfe will come of it. As the fchool-fellow of Betfey, I should be forry to hear you came to want, which, I think, is the only profpect in the ftate you now are. You may, perhaps, be offended at this plain dealing, but remember, I am a mo ment till the newspapers inform them. Mrs. Spencer is going to Paris with a gentleman fhe met with about a week ago at the opera. I imagine I imagine they will be married before they return; but that is all conjecture. If you could come and ftay with me a few weeks, my friend, it would revive your Kitty's drooping fpirits. My lord is now fo much engaged, that we fhould be quite at liberty to go where we pleased; and as it is neceffity alone, which compels me to fubther, and no flatterer, though in the mit to remain a mistress, when I thought of being a wife, you will, I am fure, pity, and make allowances for Your fincere, But deluded friend, LETTER main, Your well-wisher, MARTHA EVERGREEN. (To be continued.) K. TASTY. Of the PEOPLE and DISPOSITION of the HOLLANDERS, &C. XX. Mrs. EFVERGREEN to Mifs TASTY. From Sir William Temple's OBSERVATIONS on the UNITED PROVINCES, chap. iv. TH The firft are a race of people diligent rather than laborious, dull and flow of understanding, not to be dealt with by hafty words, but managed eatly by foft and fair. In the coun I Suppofe, Madam, you will be HE people of Holland may be furprised at a letter from me instead divided into feveral claffes: the of my daughter; but as I do not ap. clowns or boors, who cultivate the prove of her correfpondence with you, lands; mariners, or fchippers; the merI thought it beft to tell you myfelf.chants or traders; the renteners, who While there was any hopes of your live on the rents or interefts of eftates marrying the nobleman who keeps formerly acquired in their families; you, it was well enough, and I had no and the gentlemen and officers of their objections to her writing: but as armies. matters now ftand, must beg you will fend her no more letters and as to your invitation to come and fee you, I wonder, Mifs Tafty, you fhould I think of it. Though poor, thank God, we are honeft; and to be feentry and villages not near the great with a kept mitrefs would entirely towns, they feem plain and honeft, ruin the girl's character. I do not and content with their own, fo that if doubt but she would come, if I would in bounty you give them a fhilling for give her leave; but I have lived long what is worth but a groat, they will enough in the world to know that take the current price, and give you fuch intimacies are far from being the reft; if you bid them take it, they creditable; and as 1 have a match know not what you mean, and fometimes afk, if you are a fool? They know no other good but what nature requires her in my eye, I fhould not with requires, and the common increase of wealth. They feed most upon herbs, roots, and milk. The mariners are a plain, but much rougher people, whether from the element they live in, or from their food, which is generally fish and corn, and heartier than the boors. They are furly and ill-mannered: their valour is rather paffive than active; and their language is little more than what is of neceffary use to their bufinefs. The merchants and tradefmen, both the greater and mechanic, living in towns that are of great refort, are more mercurial, though they are not very inventive, which is the gift of warmer heads, yet they are great in imitation, and fo far, many times, as to go beyond the originals. Of mighty induftry and conftant application to the ends they propofe and purfue, they make ufe of their skill and wit, and take advantage of other men's ignorance and folly they deal with; are great exactors where the law is in their own hands. In other points, where they deal with men that underderftand like themselves, and are under the reach of justice and laws, they are the plainest and beft dealers in the world; which feems not to arife fo much from a principle of confcience and morality, as from a custom of habit, introduced by the neceffity of trade among them, which depends as much upon common honefly, as war does upon difcipline; and without which, all would break up, merchants would turn pedlars, and foldiers thieves. Where these families are rich, their youths after the course of their studies at home, travel for fome years, as fons of our gentry ufe to do; but their journies are chiefly into England and France; not much into Italy, feldomer into Spain; nor often into the more northern countries, unless in company or train of their public minifters. The chief end of their breeding is to make them fit for the service of their country in the magiftracy of their towns, their provinces, and their state. And of thefe kind of men are the civil officers of this government generally composed, being defcended of families who have many times been conftantly in the magiftracy of their native towns for many years, and fome for ages. Such were most or all of the chief minifters, and the perfons that compofed their chief councils; and not men of mean mechanic trades, as it is commonly received among foreigners, and makes the fubject of comical jets upon their government. This does not exclude merchants and traders in grofs, from being often seen in the offices of their cities, and sometimes deputed to their states; nor several of their ftates from turning their stocks in the management of fome very beneficial trades by fervants and houses maintained for that purpofe. But the generality of the ftates and magiftrates are of another fort; their eftates confifting in the pensions of their public charges, in the rents of lands, or intereft of money upon the cantores, or actions of the EaftIndia company, or in fhares upon the adventures of great trading mer chants. Thofe families which live upon their patrimonial estates in all great cities, are a people differently bred and mannered from the traders, though like Nor do thefe families, habituated them in the modefty of garb and ha- as it were to the magistracy of their bit, and the parfimony of living. towns and provinces, ufually arrive to Their youth are generally bred up at great or exceffive riches; the falaries fchools, and at the universities of Ley-of public employments and intereft den and Utrecht, in the common ftudies of human learning, but chiefly of the civil law, which is that of their country, at least as far as it is fo in France and Spain. VOL. XII. being low, but the revenue of lands being yet much lower, and feldom exceeding the profit of two in a hun dred. They content themselves with the honour of being useful to the reC public, than they need; making fometimes but ill copies, whereas they might be good originals, by refining or improv public, with the esteem of their cities or their country, and with the eafe of their fortunes; which feldom fails, by the frugality of their living, growning of customs and virtues proper to univerfal by being at firft neceflary, but fince honourable among them. their own country and climate. They are otherwife an honeft, well-natured, The mighty growth and excefs of friendly, and gentlemanly fort of men, riches are seen among the merchants and acquit themselves generally with and traders, whofe application lies bet-honour and merit, where their counter that way, and who are the better try employs them. content to have fo little fhare in the government, defiring only fecurity in what they poffefs; troubled with no cares but thofe of their fortunes, and the management of their trades, and turning the rest of their time and thought to the divertisement of their lives. Yet thefe, when they attain great wealth, chufe to breed up their fons in the way, and marry their daughters into the families of thofe others moft generally credited in their towns, and verfed in their magiftra cies; and thereby introduce their families into the way of government and honour which confifts not here in titie, but in pub ic employments. The officers of their armies live after the customs and fafhions of the gentlemen; and fo do many fons of the rich merchants, who returning from travel, have more defigns upon their own pleasure, and the vanity of appearance, than upon the service of their country or if they pretend to enter into that, it is rather by the army than the ftate. And all thefe are generally defirous to fee a court in their country, that they may value themfelves at home, by the qualities they have learned abroad, and make a figure which agrees better with their own humour, and the manner of courts, than with the customs and orders that prevail in popular govern. ments. To be continued.) Suite d'Hipoire d'EPAMINONDAS. (Continued from Vol. I. Page 659.) J The next rank among them, is that of their gentlemen or nobles, who in the province of Holland are very few, moft of the families having been extinguished in the long wars with Spain But what remain are in a manner, all employed in the military or civil charges of the province or ftate. Thefe are, in their cultoms, and manners, and way of living, a good deal different TASON, qui étoit retourné en from the rest of the people, and hav- Theffalie, profita habilement de la ing been bred much abroad, rather tufpenfion d'armes des Lacédémoaffect the garb of their neighbour-niens & de Thebains, pour étendre de courts, than the popular air of their jour en jour les conquêtes; fon êpée own country. They value themfelves lui foumettoit tous ceux, que fes trémore upon their nobility than men fors, fes artifices, & fon éloquence ne do in other countries, where it is pouvoit gagner. more common, and would think themfelves utterly dishonoured by the marriage of one that were not of their rank, though it were to make up the broken fortune of a noble family by the wealth of a plebcian. They ftrive to imitate the French in their mien, their clothes, their way of talk, of eating, of gallantry, or debauchery; and are fumething worfe than they 1 be, by affecting to be better Il étoit parvenu à un degrè de puiffance qui le rendoit formidable à toute la Gréce. Il paroiffoit même qu'il en affectoit l'empire, & il dévenoit infenfiblement, par fes fuccès, & par l'accroiflement de fes forces, plus propre à le conquerir. La mort interrompit le cour de fes profpérités, & fit. echoüir fes grands deffeins. Le fort de la plupart des républicains qui s'ar rogent le pouvoir abfolû devint le fien. |